Mineral deposits

The full list of minerals of the Perm region includes over 500 items. They include gypsums, marble, dolomites, anhydrites, limestone, chalky clay, sands, mineral paints, strontium, chrome and many other ores. Still, they include the ones that are the most critical for the Perm region.

Brine Well

Oil Extraction

First of all, these are oil and salts.

Oil was discovered not long ago in the Perm region, less than a hundred years ago. In 1928, an expedition led by Professor P. Preobrazhenskiy, started drilling a well as the edge of the Verkhnechusovskie Gorodki Village not far from the city of Chusovoi. On 16 April 1929, the first oil was extracted from the well.

Later, oil was found near Dobrianka, Polazna, and Krasnokamsk and from Solikamsk to Krashnovishersk. The area near Chernushka, Kueda and Usa boasts the most abundant oil deposits. The Tanyp and Batyrbai oilfields are still producing. The oil here is dense and dark brown as it was formed in the Devonian Period. The oil is deep seated and therefore is expensive but it is high quality oil, and the products made of it are in especial demand by the aviation industry.

Additionally, the Perm region accommodates circa 200 explored deposits of hydrocarbons including not only oil, but also associated gas.

The salt production dates back to the ancient past. Nobody knows now the exact date when it started or the name of the person who invented boiling the salt out of the brine. It is known only that early in the fifteenth century, the Kalinnikovs, a merchant family, grew prominent in the Perm region and started developing underground brines. Thus, the settlement of Sol Kamskaya on the Usolka River near its confluence with the Kama River appeared in 1530 and that later became and is still known as Solikamsk. Later salt production was the business of the Stroganovs who had been increasing the number of their salt works, and the Perm salt known as the permianka drove its main competitors, the Vychegda and Balashikha salts, from the salt market. In addition to the common salt, the Perm region also produces potash salts at the Upper Kama Field stretching from the Nyukhti Lake in the Krasnovisherskiy District to the Yaiva River basin in the south with the cities of Berezniki and Solikamsk "sitting on top of the field". Potash fertilizers, food and process salt and raw materials for the Titanium-Magnesium Plant are also produced.

Diamond

Traces of Inhabitanta of the Ancient Perm Sea

The only Russian deposit of chromite ores near the Sarany Settlement is also important for the Perm region. The region is also rich in mineral dyes. The Servino Field is promising in this respect. The Perm region has been producing coal and iron ores for over 200 years.

Back in the Peter the First's age, mountains and foothills of Ural were producing over two million stones of iron used to manufacture cannons, rifles, cannonballs and other strategic goods.

The Perm region is more than rich in peat. Only the Krasnokamskoe Field in Shabunichi can provide fuel to all 234 major enterprises of the Perm region for 70 years. Another major peat deposit is located to the south of the city of Krasnovishersk. Peat is also present in Kochevo, Gainy, Nyrob, Chastinskiy District and other places. The reserves are mostly not developed and constitute the strategic reserve of the fuel industry.

Mineral Peat Slice

Volchonskoite

The Perm region also accommodates other minerals that make it unusual and original, such as diamonds. Diamond output in the Perm region does not exceed 0.1 to 0.2% of the total Russian one but the Perm diamonds account for 20% of value of the total Russian diamond output due to their high quality. 80% of diamonds are used to produce jewelry. Additionally, diamonds from the Perm region have no hues, are transparent, crystal clear and have rounded edges. 2004 saw discovery of a 35-carat diamond 20 by 17 millimeters. A nine-year old serf boy Pavel Popov found the first diamond in the Perm region and was awarded freedom from serfdom for it. Now, many years past, the Perm Territory produces diamonds commercially in the Krasnovisherskiy and Gornozavodskiy Districts (Kusia-Alexandrovsk). Cherdyn, Krasnokamsk and Aleksandrovsk are also known for their diamond placers. In addition to diamonds, the Perm Territory is also producing gold.

Volchonskoite is another but no less interesting mineral of the Perm region. No other place in Russia accommodates its commercial deposits, while globally volchonskoite can be found only in the SAR. Volchonskoite is globally acclaimed not in vain. The mineral is used to produce the dye of bright and fleshy green color. In 1927, the Higher Art and Technical Institute produced its Green Earth, volchonskoite-based paint of very high quality that did not decay in the sun, did not turn yellow, was insoluble with organic solvents, did not deteriorate even subjected to acids and alkalis, and was able to preserve its color for ages. Pablo Picasso is known to have loved the paint and even having contacted Soviet geologists to recommence commercial production of volchonskoite. Additionally, volchonskoite is a clay-like material that can be used to soften water, purify and refine oils and produce enamels, glazes, ceramics and pottery.

Diamond Dredger

Volchonskoite Deposits in Rock bed

Volchonskoite was discovered back in 1830 in Chastinskiy District not far from Efimiata village. Who discovered volchonskoite and in honor of whom it was named is still unclear. There are several versions one of which runs that the mineral was named in honor of the wife of the Decembrist Sergei Volkonsky, Maria Volkonsky, who visited the Perm Governorate twice.

The Perm region's mineral diversity results from a combination of different forms of landscape such as western plains located on the eastern edge of the Russian Craton and the Ural Mountain System. Additionally, numerous sediment minerals of the Perm region (including salts) are associated with presence of the ancient Perm Sea here circa 300 million years ago. Due to orogenic processes, the Sea had separated from its main bed of water and dried out later. The water evaporated, while minerals dissolved in it remained and became the foundation of numerous industries of the Perm region.